Airborne 08.18.17

Wreckage Found From Same Type Of Airplane Reported Missing Monday

The NTSB has joined the investigation of a Mitsubishi MU-2 that went missing Monday in the vicinity of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Bloomberg reports that the Board said in a Tweet Wednesday that the aircraft went missing about 35 miles northeast of the Bahamas while on a flight from Puerto Rico to Florida. The FAA said in a statement that the plane, a Mitsubishi MU-2B, dropped off radar at about 1:30 p.m. local time Monday.

According to FAA records, the aircraft was registered to Ithaca Consulting of Southold, NY. The plane was being piloted by Nathan Ulrich. Also on board were New York designer Jennifer Blumin, who was dating Ulrich, and her two children.

In a news release, the U.S. Coast Guard said that at approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, a Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew located a fuel sheen and a debris field 15 miles east of Eleuthera, Bahamas. The helicopter crew was able to lower a rescue swimmer and retrieve some of the debris to transfer ashore for identification. Some airplane components recovered from the debris were confirmed to be from an MU-2B airplane.

As of Wednesday, the search continued to be an SAR mission. Rescue crews had searched for over 30 hours covering more than 8,200 square miles.